Family to exit farm after 93 years
The Rock Farm is for sale and owners Herstall and Aly Ulrich are anticipating plenty of nostalgia when they leave for the property has been in their family for 93 years.
‘‘I am retiring from farming to focus on other things, ‘‘ said Herstall, who is also a director of Vetlife and was previously on the board of meat company Silver Fern Farms.
The South Canterbury property, near the village of Cave, sprawls across 490 hectares of freehold rolling clay downs. Rock Farm gets its name from a large boulder on the hillside that comes complete with Maori rock art.
‘‘Historically The Rock Farm has been a breeding finishing property. But we have shifted to growing more lucerne and lucerne mix and therefore producing some quality feed. Looking at the economics of various livestock farming patterns we have slowly over the years shifted to finishing. Two and a half years ago we made the decision to make the move for good. These days the stock are all finishing lambs, finishing cattle and dairy heifers for the dairy farm.
‘‘From time to time we have grown a little bit of cereal crop for silage and grain for our own use. Nothing significant because we are not cropping farmers. Some contours would be a bit testing for cropping although there are significant areas where this wouldn’t be a problem. It just hasn’t been our game.’’
Herstall has always been a farm forestry enthusiast and there is about 40ha of plantation on the property, mainly in pine. There are also a couple of blocks of macrocarpa.
Herstall’s grandfather, Geoffrey Rich bought The Rock Farm in 1924. It had been part of the Levels Estate that ran from Pareora to Opihi and back to the foothills. This was broken up by the government in the early 1900s and The Rock Farm was one of the splinters.
‘‘The farm had one or two owners before my grandfather took it on in 1924. It was a much smaller place then and over the years my family has added to it. My grandfather probably ran romneys . ... When he took it on it hadn’t seen any fertiliser.’’
The homestead was built in the Levels Estate days, sometime during the 1880s, and has been added to and modernised over the years. The farm benefited from the railway which was completed through to Fairlie in the 1870s enabling easy loading of sheep and cattle. Road transport eventually forced the closure of the rail in 1968.
During the war years cropping increased on the farm but this has since settled down to a dry stock programme.
The property was one of the first to have tractors in the area and after the war, a Tiger Moth was used to spread super phosphate for clover growth.
Herstall and Aly are unsure of what they will do once the farm has sold, but plan to stay in South Canterbury.